COP29: Nvidia & Deloitte on AI's Dual Role in Climate Action
Off the back of COP29, AI emerges as both a promising solution and a potential challenge in the fight against climate change.
While AI's power to aid in combating climate change is increasingly recognised, there is also growing concern about its environmental footprint.
Recent studies highlight a significant increase in AI-related energy consumption, with projections showing data centre power demand could hit 2,000TWh by 2050.
Simultaneously, significant tech companies are witnessing substantial jumps in their greenhouse gas emissions.
Nevertheless, AI's potential to push forward sustainability projects is undeniable.
AI technologies are crucial in fields ranging from optimising energy grids to improving disaster prevention systems and transforming digital agriculture.
This creates a complex situation that invited crucial discussions at COP29, where global leaders alongside industry experts are expected to address the intricate balance of utilising AI for climate action against its environmental costs.
Deloitte's Powering Artificial Intelligence: A study of AI's environmental footprint report highlights the dual nature of AI in the context of climate change.
Working toward sustainable AI development
The Deloitte study estimates that AI adoption could dramatically increase data centre energy use, potentially accounting for 3% of worldwide electricity consumption.
This anticipated surge in power usage has not gone unnoticed among environmental experts.
According to the UN's Greening Digital Companies 2024 report, notable cloud providers involved in AI report a 62% increase in greenhouse gas emissions since 2020 and an even steeper 78% rise in electricity consumption since 2023.
Josh Parker, Senior Director of Legal – Corporate Sustainability at Nvidia emphasises that existing data centre infrastructure is becoming dated and less efficient: “The data shows that it’s 10x more efficient to run workloads on accelerated computing platforms than on traditional data centre platforms.
“There’s a huge opportunity for us to reduce the energy consumed in existing infrastructures.”
Nvidia: At the forefront of innovations in energy efficiency
Despite the worry over AI's energy demands, industry frontrunners like Nvidia are spearheading initiatives to enhance energy efficiency in AI operations.
- AI adoption is predicted to increase data centre power demand to 2,000 TWh by 2050, accounting for 3% of global electricity consumption
- Nvidia is implementing liquid-cooled GPUs for more energy-efficient data centre operations Accelerated computing platforms are 10x more efficient than traditional data centre platforms for running workloads
- The energy efficiency of accelerated computing has shown a 100,000x reduction in energy consumption over the past several years
Josh says: "We see a very rapid trend toward direct-to-chip liquid cooling, which means water demands in data centres are dropping dramatically right now.
"The trend in energy efficiency for accelerated computing over the last several years shows a 100,000x reduction in energy consumption.
“And just in the past 2 years, we've become 25x more efficient for AI inference. That's a 96% reduction in energy for the same computational workload," he says.
“Accelerated computing is actually the most energy-efficient platform that we’ve seen for AI but also for a lot of other computing applications.”
AI: A tool for sustainability
Further than improving its own efficiency, AI is increasingly applied to boost sustainability across various industries.
The technology plays a pivotal role in enhancing energy grids, bolstering disaster prevention through early warning systems and advancing digital agriculture techniques.
In the manufacturing realm, AI-enabled digital twins are creating ways for businesses to cut down on energy usage significantly.
Josh says: "In manufacturing, we’re seeing around 30% reductions in energy requirements if you use AI to help optimise the manufacturing process through digital twins."
The COP29 Green Digital Action Declaration aims to commit endorsers to leveraging digital tools for climate action, incorporating climate resiliencies into digital infrastructure and mitigating the environmental impact of digitalisation.
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